 On August 10, Jason Eady returns with his new album I Travel On, his first to be recorded with his stellar touring band [The Natural High] who have been on the road with him for well over a year. While still full of impactful and insightful lyricism, I Travel On, features a looser, livelier, and more groove-driven melodic feel due in large part to the varied influences of the individual players resulting in a project undeniably vibrant and fresh. In advance of the highly anticipated release, Eady graciously spoke about I Travel On and the organic way its sound came together, as well as the gratefulness that permeates the album and its special cover art. I Travel On was written over the course of a month. Was there something specific that spurred that creativity? Last year we released a record in April and toured all over the country. During that time, we not only gathered a ton of stories, but we also zeroed in on our sound. Since I was a kid, I have loved Bluegrass and everything about it. I never wanted to make a Bluegrass record though because I think it would be a little disrespectful to the genre because in order to do that right you have to be playing since you were 5 years old and be a master of your instrument. I wouldn’t attempt to pass myself off as a real Bluegrass guy, and while our lead player in the band, Kevin Foster, is a traditional Bluegrass guy, the others come from different areas. Naj Conklin, who plays upright bass, comes from Tulsa and has that swampy groove sound, and our drummer, Giovanni Carnuccio, is from Philly and he brings that R and B feel. When we started playing together though, we found this groove - and it wasn’t intentional or something we searched for – it happened by the nature of how all of the parts came together. We all latched onto what we naturally do and created this acoustic-based sound that's all our own. So, when it came time to write for this record, something I was waiting years to do, I was ready. I was writing for this sound we captured and, also, writing based on the experiences we had on the road. Between the musical part and the content, the well was ready to burst. Were all of the songs solo writes? I wrote the title track with Max Stalling and the Bluegrass tune, “Pretty When I Die,” with Justin Wells. “Waterline” and “Now or Never” I wrote with Courtney [Patton, his wife] and the other seven I wrote myself. As a writer, I used to have this idea that if you’re a real songwriter, you’re supposed to sit down and write all the time, but I have definitely figured out that it’s personal and you have to find what works for you. And what works for me is the opposite of that. If I wrote all the time it would get very stale, so I learned to trust the process. If I don’t write for six months, I don’t let it bother me at all; when it’s time I trust it will work and so when the time came to sit and write, the songs flowed out.  The band that you captured the sound with, your touring band, are the ones who played on the record, which is not something everyone does. That was important to you.
Yes, and that’s another reason why I’m so excited about this release. When we tour, the band you hear live is the band that played on the record, not a band who had to learn the songs after other musicians played them in the studio. But in addition to the four of us, we did bring in two other players: Trey Hensley (acoustic guitar) and Rob Ickes (dobro), who is the most awarded Bluegrass instrumentalist in history. The two of them started a band about 4-5 years ago and their first album, which we all love, was nominated for a Grammy. We thought we'd like to have them play on the album, so we called them, asked, and they said yes. All in, it was the four of us, plus the two of them, and Courtney on harmonies. Everything was done live with no fixing or overdubs, so the seven of us can sit in a field tomorrow and play this album which is a true representation of where we were last year. We went in and did the thing and took it somewhere we’ve never been. Not that you don’t have lively songs, but this album as a whole seems more vibrant. We’ve been sitting on this thing since December waiting for people to hear it and give us feedback, so it’s cool to hear you say that because that’s what we hoped people would get out of it. I’ve always made records that were more lyrically oriented, then had the music support the lyrics. This time I tried to lighten that up, yet still having messages and trying to get points across, but my hope is that if you just want to listen to this as a feel-good album and don’t want to even pay attention to lyrics you can do that. In addition to the energy, another thing I found flowing through the album is a sense of gratefulness. Is that fair to say? Yes, very much. With this record, before I was getting to write, there was a turning point for me. Last year, around May/June, we were in Paris for a festival and we had the night off, so we were wandering around and were in front of Notre Dame Cathedral when we heard music from a Croatian bar across the street. We thought we’d pop in and see what was going on. The crowd was having a great time, and the bartender asked us what we were doing there. We told him we were musicians and he pulled up my music on Spotify and started playing it. Well, I guess my top songs are all sad depressing ones and as they were playing one after the other, even I was getting depressed listening to them. I thought, ‘Oh my God, I hope this is not who people think I am, some sad, depressed person.’ So, I went into this record trying to counter that a little bit. I am 100% not a sad person; I’m a pretty happy person who likes cathartic sad songs. But for this record, I definitely wanted to get across the idea that things are good. I’m a happy, positive person with a good life. I heard that loud and clear. I Travel On, captures life as a touring musician. Is there any significance as to why you not only chose that as the title, but also have it as the album closer? Another theme of the record is travel, whether literally or figuratively, trying to get from one place in life to another. As soon as I wrote “I Travel On,” I knew it was going to be the title because that’s what we did last year and that’s what was on my mind. The title also makes sense career-wise because I am moving into new musical territory. So, when I ordered the tracks, the way the song ends with that stretch outro and then it’s just me saying that line that, well, it was very intentional because that’s the idea: that no matter what, at the end of the day you keep going. So true. You also did a little something different this time in terms of the cover art, which is stunning. With this album, the artwork is a huge deal to me. I had that idea for years and never knew what to do with it. I’m not an artist and cannot draw, but I had the idea that everything in the world funnels from a lot of different things coming together to create one thing and from that explodes back out into a lot of things. Moments create other moments, yet I couldn’t figure out how to visually represent that except an hourglass, which isn’t all that original. When the time came to record, I called Casey Pierce who came into the studio to do some video work for us. He is also a great abstract artist and I told him my idea and the very first draft of what he sent, he got it. The clouds all funnel into one single point but then at the same time, there is the road leading off which captures the travel element. I fell in love with it so much that I did not want to corrupt it by putting anything else on it. Once he created it, we decided to shrink wrap the album and put a sticker with the name and title on the outside so that if you take it off it’s just the cover, which is a piece of art in itself that you can hang on your wall. He did a wonderful job with it. I Travel On is due August 10th Website - Facebook - Twitter - Instagram - Spotify
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